Four suspected of running over woman's hand outside party in Santa Cruz

SANTA CRUZ &GT;&GT; Authorities arrested three young women and a man Monday after they ran over a 57-year-old woman's hand while stealing her cellphone outside a Santa Cruz house party, police said.

The 18- and 19-year-olds were trying to crash a party on Laurent Street on the Upper Westside Friday night, and the woman took pictures of them with her cellphone to document their behavior when her phone was snatched, said Santa Cruz Deputy Police Chief. She fell down on the street, fractured her left hand in several places and suffered a black eye during the attack, she said. She was released from a hospital Saturday, but said Monday that she is still in pain and shock.

"The upper Westside is not exactly the inner city. You don't expect this kind of thing to happen," said the woman, who the Sentinel is not naming her because she fears retaliation.

"Right now I'm just trying to focus on getting better."

Kyla Bell-Bernard, an 18-year-old from Freedom, Cassie McCabe, an 18-year-old from Soquel, Esabella Gentile-Montgomery, a 19-year-old from Santa Cruz and Riley Cameron, and 18-year-old from Santa Cruz, all were arrested on suspicion of robbery and conspiracy, police said.

Police said Bell-Bernard drove the silver Toyota Prius during the attack and was also arrested on suspicion of felony hit-and-run.

The trouble started Friday night when teenagers had a party on the 1500 block of Laurent Street, police said.

The four teens in the Prius had been at another party in Aptos that night and arrived uninvited to the Santa Cruz gathering on Laurent Street, Clark said. Police already had been called to break up the party because of noise, and officers arrived and were clearing it out as the four teens were on the street.

A 57-year-old woman who lives in the neighborhood was outside the home and snapped pictures of some of the teens on the street. People in the group got upset and attacked her, police said. They grabbed her phone and tried to smash it, but the woman got her phone back and continued to take pictures, said Clark.

The teens then left in the Prius but came back minutes later because they were afraid some of the woman's photos might end up on social media, Clark said. So they "hatched a plan," returned to the woman on the street and lured her near the car.

"One of the suspects reached out and grabbed the victim's phone, pulling it and the victim's arm into the car," Clark said. "The victim fell to the ground and the driver accelerated away."

The woman's hand was run over by a rear tire of the Prius. The four suspects fled in the car and later tossed the cellphone in the ocean, Clark said.

Police declined to describe the phone and where it was discarded. It was not recovered as of Tuesday afternoon.

Detectives determined that the Prius belonged to McCabe's family, although Bell-Bernard was the driver. McCabe was arrested at her Soquel home, and the Prius was impounded, police said.

Cameron was arrested at his home in Santa Cruz, and Bell-Bernard and Gentile-Montgomery were arrested at Gentile-Montgomery's home in Santa Cruz, authorities said.

Bell-Bernard and Gentile-Montgomery remained in Santa Cruz County Jail on Tuesday in lieu of $50,000 bail, according to jail records.